Gross Gus's Dinosaur Dung Chocolate Soda

I was feeling adventurous and opened this soda this afternoon:

Brand: Gross Gus's Dinosaur Dung Chocolate Soda.

Origin: Inyokern, CA.

Purchase Place: Blue Sun Soda, Spring Lake Park, MN.

Sweetener: Sugar.

Review: It smelled like chocolate. And it TASTED like chocolate. This was much better than the first chocolate soda I had a few years ago, although some of the same things can be said about it: it tasted a bit like a liquid Tootsie Rolls, and it's mainly "sip-able" (not really "drinkable"). But the flavor was much better in this one. It still wasn't GREAT, but I'll give this an average score. If you like chocolate and are intrigued, check this one out.

Score: 5 out of 10.

Fun St. Patrick's Addition to "Mom & Pops"

Mom & Pops in Mankato announced a fun treat for St. Patrick's Day:

Bawls Guarana Cherry

We stopped at "Fresh Thyme" grocery store over the weekend, and my wife asked "hey, have you had all of these?" as we walked through the soda section. I found a Bawls Cherry that I hadn't tried before:

Hard to photograph - had to hold it in the right spot to make out the label.

Brand: Bawls Guarana Cherry.

Origin: Twinsburg, OH.

Purchase Place: Fresh Thyme Grocery Store, Minneapolis, MN.

Sweetener: High Fructose Corn Syrup.

Review: My first Bawls soda / energy drink was a bit of a let down. They made sodas with a super high caffeine content - one of the ingredients is guarana extract which is about twice as potent as coffee beans. This bottle had 64 mg of caffeine. But I still wanted to try this. It wasn't great. The cherry flavor was OK the moment it touched my tongue, but then it immediately became very "chemically" tasting. And it was weak/thin tasting. Both of those things I ended up saying about my first Bawls soda as well. Not a fan of Bawls.

Score: 3 out of 10.

Freaky Dog Soda Rooffbeer

I did some cooking this afternoon, and I opened this to enjoy while cutting up veggies:

Brand: Freaky Dog Soda Rooffbeer.

Origin: Ipswich, MA.

Purchase Place: Blue Sun Soda, Spring Lake Park, MN.

Sweetener: Cane Sugar.

Review: This was pretty heavy on the wintergreen, and also pretty smooth. It went down easily, but make sure you like wintergreen, or you'll think this is a bit too much. I'll give it a better-than-average score.

Score: 7 out of 10.

Soda Pun

Sipping Spider Venom Cherry Cola

Last Friday, I stopped by Frattallone's Ace Hardware on Grand Ave in St. Paul (the "west" one by Macalaster College), and I took a quick look over their soda section:

I grabbed something near the top left of that image, and I opened it earlier today:

Brand: Sipping Spider Venom Cherry Cola.

Origin: Mukilteo, WA.

Purchase Place: Frattallone's Ace Hardware, St. Paul, MN.

Sweetener: Cane Sugar.

Review: This was good. It had a real deep cherry flavor - very strong and sweet. It was almost a "black cherry" flavor. It has "extract of dark sweet cherry" on the ingredients list, and I don't know if it's that ingredient that makes this so tasty. It was strong flavored classic cherry cola with a bit more "pop." I really enjoyed it!

Score: 9 out of 10.

Sparkling Life Soda

My boys and I just spent 3 days winter "camping" in a camper cabin in western MN. We cracked open this soda on the first night when we were playing games in the Interpretive Center:

Battleship by the woodstove before bed.

Brand: Sparkling Life Soda.

Origin: Breese, IL.

Purchase Place: Blue Sun Soda, Spring Lake Park, MN.

Sweetener: Pure Cane Sugar.

Review: I don't know that I've ever had a "bad" lemon lime soda, but this one wasn't fantastic. It wasn't "bad," but it had a slightly strange sharpness at the end of each sip. My boys loved it, but they love anything sugary. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't good, so I'll give it an average score of 5.

Score: 5 out of 10.

Cherry Coke Transformer